


Three Nights

by BotchedExperiment



Series: AU Sickfics No One Asked for [1]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crying, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic, Vomit Mention, theyre too cute tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 18:09:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10541787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BotchedExperiment/pseuds/BotchedExperiment
Summary: "Don't look so worried, love." That was easy for him to say! He obviously hadn't come across any mirrors recently.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sorahana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sorahana/gifts).



> A lot of the credit for this goes to Sorahana for chatting about this fic with me and coming up with all sorts of ideas and ways to inflict pain and discomfort on this poor guy. So they deserve a lot of thanks for the existence of this fic!

Things were going well!

His new promotion meant a better life for he and Sportacus, better money, a better home, and the only downside was moving to a new city. They had agreed early on that they could get used to the new area as long as they had each other, because change could be scary alone.

The new job also required Robbie to attend a series of meetings and conferences before he could start work, which bummed them both out, but it was only a few days away from home, and then they could unpack together like the disgustingly adorable couple they were.

Sportacus decided he would wait until Robbie returned and they were settled before he would find a job of his own, although Robbie insisted there was no real need with the money that he was making. He had to admit, he couldn’t see Sportacus content with doing nothing.

"Do you really have to leave?" Sportacus asked as Robbie packed his suitcase. He wrapped his arms around Robbie from behind and nuzzled into his back, distracting Robbie from whatever he was doing. Packing? Yes, that's right. He was packing.

Robbie turned around in Sportacus' arms and kissed him. "It's just a few days and then I'll be back."

The plane ride there was painless, if not a bit long. Just a few hours from Sportacus and Robbie was ready to go back home. This is for our future, he told himself, walking into his hotel room and already feeling homesick.

The two had plans to video chat every night before bed because they didn’t want to go to sleep without seeing each other's faces.

The first night came as a relief. Between all of the traveling, running around, and getting settled Robbie had experienced the first day, he was exhausted and couldn’t wait to talk to Sportacus. It had only been twelve hours but it felt like forever.

All of the stresses of the day melted away when he saw Sportacus' face pop up on his laptop.

"Hey! How was your day?"

"Good." Robbie yawned. "Tiring."

The sleepy conversation went on for a good hour before either of them wanted to end the call, but they both needed to sleep and Sportacus was already staying up later than he was used to, to accommodate the time difference where Robbie was.

They bid each other goodnight and both fell asleep.

\-----

The second night had Robbie in a good mood. His first full day of conferences went well and everyone he met was sane enough that he could deal with spending the rest of the trip with them.

He was excited to tell Sportacus all about his day and how well things were going. His bosses and coworkers didn’t hate him! That alone was a miracle, as Robbie wasn’t exactly a ray of sunshine.

He opened his laptop and immediately called Sportacus, who answered with a yawn, looking like he had already been asleep - not surprising considering how early he usually conked out.

"Hi," Sportacus greeted with a sleepy smile. "Sorry, guess I fell asleep. How was your day?" There was an unusual hoarseness to his voice that had Robbie narrowing his eyes in suspicion for a second or two, but he decided that it wasn’t too different from how Sportacus usually sounded when he was woken up.

Robbie told him all about the good day he had, and in return Sportacus told him about the dishes he had gotten unpacked and put away without _too bad_ of an incident. They chatted for a little while but it was obvious that Sportacus was tired.

"I think it's past your bedtime," Robbie said after watching him yawn for the fifth time.

Sportacus nearly whined, "But I want to talk to you! I miss you!"

"You'll talk to me tomorrow! Go to bed, Sportasleepy."

Sportacus reluctantly exchanged a goodnight, an 'I love you' and they ended the call. By the looks of him, Robbie was sure he passed out as soon as the video chat ended.

\-----

The third night was part of Robbie's routine by that time. Get in pajamas, brush teeth, get in bed, call Sportacus. His heart was jumping with excitement as the his laptop rang and rang - he wanted to see his love!

It took Sportacus an odd amount of time to pick up, and when he finally did, Robbie's jaw dropped. Sportacus shuffled around in front of the camera, in the process of making himself comfortable while Robbie stared.

He looked awful.

He was pale as a ghost save for the dark circles under his eyes and an irritated redness of his nose. He finally got settled and looked at Robbie, crinkling his nose and sniffling wetly.

"Sport, are you sick?" Robbie asked immediately after recovering from the shock of seeing him so disheveled.

"Maybe a bit under the weather," He admitted, coughing lightly.

By the looks of him, it was far more than "a bit". He looked miserable, and he looked feverish, and Robbie really wished he was at home feeling Sportacus' forehead and doing what he could to make him feel better.

Sportacus gave a congested chuckle, lazily pushing his mess of hair out of his eyes. "Don't look so worried, love." That was easy for him to say! He obviously hadn't come across any mirrors recently.

Regardless, Robbie made conversation as usual because Sportacus was going to start getting outright defensive if he continued to ask questions about his health. They managed to talk for a while between sniffles and coughs while Robbie tried to ignore the obvious shivers Sportacus had going on. He was in the middle of asking Sportacus how the weather there was when Robbie saw the strangest look come across his face - a look he hadn't seen many times before.

Even on a computer screen he could see Sportacus go pale. His eyes widened, hand carefully rising to clamp over his mouth.

"Sport…?" Robbie tried, but Sportacus was already pushing the laptop to the side and scrambling out of bed. Robbie's heart was in his mouth when he heard retching from the connected bathroom.

How long had this been going on? What if Sportacus had been in this bad of shape all day? The first time either of them had gotten sick in months and it just had to be when they were separated and had just moved to a strange place.

He waited anxiously until Sportacus came back into view of the camera, looking even worse than he had before. He sniffled and pawed at his nose, pulling the computer back into his lap and rubbing away tear tracks on his cheeks. Any facade he was keeping up before was gone.

"I wish you were here, Robbie. I miss you and... And..." His voice cracked at the end, trailing off and fighting the urge to cry. Illness always messed with his emotions and it was happening now, while he was so far away.

Robbie's heart broke.

"Oh, Sport," Robbie cooed. "I'll be back soon, I promise."

Sportacus didn't look comforted by the idea of waiting until then to see him.

"Are you okay? I- I mean of course you're not... but are you dizzy at all? Do you feel like you're going to pass out when you stand up?" _Did he need to check up on him all day tomorrow to make sure he was still conscious?_

The silence that followed Robbie's question was disconcerting. Sportacus didn't look quite sure but he shook his head.

"N-no. I'll be alright. I just feel..." Sportacus stopped, closing his eyes and swallowing and for a horrifying moment, Robbie thought he was going to puke again. "… Feel sick."

Robbie wasn't convinced. "Hm… okay, but keep me updated tomorrow so I know you're still alive and kicking."

Sportacus laughed a bit despite his obvious misery. "Of course." He sniffled again and wiped away a couple more tears that seemed to have escaped.

Robbie watched him carefully for a little while. "Have you taken your temp lately?"

"No," Sportacus admitted.

"Go do that now. And get a glass of water to keep by the bed."

"I don’t want to get out of bed…" Well, that was something he never thought he's hear Sportacus say.

"Please, Sport. I need to know how bad your fever is."

He hesitated before leaving, and Robbie practically held his breath waiting for a wobbly-looking Sportacus to return with their thermometer and a glass of water. The wait for the thermometer to beep was even more tedious, but it finally beeped. Sportacus squinted at the number and then held it to the camera for Robbie to see.

His blood ran cold. He _really_ wished he was there with Sportacus.

"Oh boy…" He mumbled.

Sportacus sighed shakily and reached to turn off the bedside lamp, lying down and setting the laptop next to his pillow.

"Can you talk about something please?"

"What do you want me to talk about, sweetheart?" Robbie asked softly as Sportacus started to get sleepy.

"Anything. I just want to listen to your voice."

So Robbie began talking about nothing, occasionally making a joke just so he could see a little tired smile on Sportacus' face. He was in the middle of a fantastic story about a dog he had seen on his way to a conference the day before, when the screen went black and the call ended.

"Sport? You still there?" He panicked. Robbie grabbed his phone and called Sportacus before he could even think about it.

It rang… and rang… and rang.

_C'mon Sport, pick up…_

Finally, there was a click, and a raspy, "Hello?"

"Oh, thank God," Robbie let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

"Sorry." Sportacus coughed and cleared his throat. "Must have forgotten to plug it in."

Robbie sighed, recovered from his brief cardiac arrest, and told Sportacus goodnight so he could go to sleep for real.

"Love you, Robbie."

"Love you too. Get some rest, okay?"

"Mhm."

\-----

Robbie snuck off between meetings the next day to call Sportacus.

He bounced on his heels anxiously as he listened to the ring once again. Robbie had been waiting all day to get a free moment, because he couldn’t go any longer without checking up on Sportacus.

"Hey," Sportacus greeted.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Better, I think!" He definitely sounded better than the night before - that was good, right? Then again, anything would have sounded better than how he did before.

"You've been taking it easy, right Sport?" He asked suspiciously.

A sigh. "Yes, I have. I've been on the sofa watching TV all day. It's awful staying in one spot for so long, Robbie, I don’t know how you do it!"

Robbie grinned, and then asked one more question, "Have you had anything to eat today?"

"Um…"

Robbie's grin faded away. "Sport…"

"I'm sorry, I- I don’t feel very hungry."

Robbie was about to scold him, thinking that he shouldn’t have to lecture the health nut about the _importance of food for goodness' sake_ , but before he could, Sportacus started to cough.

"Sport? Get a drink of water, honey. It'll help your throat."

There was a whimper on the other end of the line and at that very same moment, someone called Robbie back for the next meeting. Crap.

"I'm so sorry, I have to… I have to go. Please eat something. For me, please?"

"I'll try," Came the miserable, hoarse reply. His voice had gone right back to how he sounded the night before, not to mention it sounded like Sportacus was developing a sore throat along with everything else. He may not have been getting better like Robbie had hoped.

\-----

Robbie tried to pay attention, tried to make it look like he knew what he was doing, but his mind was somewhere else entirely. Sportacus was all he could think about during the meeting. Was he okay? What if something happened while Robbie was gone? They didn’t know anyone in that city! There was nobody to come to his aid if he needed it!

A nudge in the arm pulled him from his thoughts during a break in the meeting. Much to Robbie's horror, his new boss was towering over him; the boss he was supposed to impress, that he had yet to have a one-on-one conversation with.

"Is something wrong, Mr. Rotten?"

"I- uh," He shook his head. "N-no, nothing's wrong, ma'am!"

Robbie tensed when he heard the words "You seemed distracted during the meeting." Was this it? Was he getting fired before he even started working?

"Y-yes, sorry. My partner's at home alone, and he's very sick and I'm just worried about him." Who cared what he said? He was probably going to get fired anyway! But much to Robbie's confusion, his boss looked… sympathetic?

And before he knew it, he was being sent to the hotel to pack and get the first flight out of there. The amazing part? He wasn’t fired.

_"I'll send you an email with anything important you missed."_

Robbie decided that he liked his new boss.

\-----

The flight was tedious and long and Robbie could hardly sit still. Maybe this was what Sportacus felt like all the time, all jumpy and a need to move, although he probably didn’t feel like this out of anxiety like Robbie.

It was forever before Robbie finally got home, luggage in tow and running to the house. It was already night time and he and Sportacus would usually be on video chat by now, Robbie realized as he unlocked the front door.

He dropped his luggage at the door and - when Sportacus was nowhere in sight - ran to their bedroom and found the sick man curled up in bed. He quietly approached him and placed a hand on Sportacus' shoulder, only for the other man to gasp in fright and shoot up.

"Robbie?!" Sportacus said, as if he wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing wasn’t some fever dream.

Robbie wrapped him in a tight hug, never wanting to let him go, and Sportacus did the same. "Decided to come back a little early," he mumbled into Sportacus' neck as he held him.

Suddenly, Sportacus was sobbing. It wasn’t a surprise considering how warm he felt, the fever was probably messing with him.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I tried to call you tonight and you wouldn’t pick up, and I thought you were- and now you're here," He choked, tears falling down his cheeks, soaking into the fabric of Robbie's shirt. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too."

Suddenly, Sportacus pulled away and clamped a hand over his mouth. "Robbie-"

Robbie snatched the bin already sitting beside the bed and got it under Sportacus' chin just in time. The was nothing much to bring up, showing Robbie that he hadn't taken his advice and eaten something. Robbie sighed.

"Maybe you should calm down before you make yourself sick again."

"Agreed." He lazily wiped at his mouth on the back of his wrist. "I bet you didn’t know what a mess you'd be coming home to," he joked dryly.

Robbie chuckled and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "I don’t care what kind of a mess you are. I'm just glad you're not alone anymore."


End file.
